Wrong

You’re Doing It Wrong

Garth Beyer

I’m not fond of advertisements or PR campaigns that are built on the foundation of people doing something wrong.

Drinking bud light? You’re drinking wrong, drink this instead. Starting fire with newspapers? You’re doing it wrong, do it this way instead. Spending countless hours playing video games instead of being outside? You don’t know how to have fun because you’re doing it wrong.

No matter how right one may be right, I can’t justify getting behind a campaign that embraces a product or service’s rightness by pointing out the user or consumer’s wrongness.

It takes a certain amount of passion and faith about a product to state to someone they are doing it wrong and to do it right they should invest in your product.

It takes even more passion and faith (and a great product) to not need to.

 

Stay Positive & Focus On What’s Right, Not What’s Wrong

p.s. also by giving examples of wrong ways, you’re planting the idea of doing it any of those ways instead of the “right” way you’re suggesting. What’s wrong for you might be right for them.

p.s.s yes, this may be a bit abstract. Feel free to email me to chat more.

Right And Clear

Garth Beyer

I was in the middle of a discussion about the use of the word “regret” in a client training memo. The word was being used in an extremely untraditional way.

One person thought it made sense. The other, not so much.

Not having been involved in the project, it was a fresh term and client for me. The two discussing the term asked my opinion and I had to say both were right.

It was the right use of the word, but I didn’t believe it was a clear use of it.

Often times when a disagreement takes place, the discussion leans toward who is right and who is wrong, often failing to result in a decision that’s clear.

Which is more important to you? Being right or being clear?

 

Stay Positive & Be Selfless, Be Clear

If You’re Going To Do It…

Garth Beyer

I grew up with my dad telling me that if I’m going to do something, I better do it right.

I’ve since expanded on it, and began sharing the view with others.

If you’re going to do something, do it so it exceeds expectations. Do it better than right. Do it in a way the receiver, viewer, client, customer wouldn’t have imagined you to do it.

You can make something right, but you can also make something wrong for all the right reasons.

 

Stay Positive & Take The Chance To Do Things Better, But Differently Too

Just Because You’re Wrong, Doesn’t Mean You’re Not Right

Garth Beyer

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Let me tell you a quick story.

I was recently working on a fictional newsletter to help me learn InDesign. I had an instructor looking over my shoulder every now and then to comment on my work. I designed the newsletter for the shareholders of a fictional railway company. Naturally, my newsletter had the company’s name as the header. It was a simple black text on a light blue background (colors of the company).

To make the distinction that the newsletter was for shareholders, I put exactly that – “shareholders” – in black type, half over the light blue background box and half on the white background (the paper).

Some would see it as I saw it: beautiful balance between who is most important (the company and the shareholders), slightly abstract, and it was the first thing to catch someone’s eye – rightfully so. The instructor saw it differently.

She saw it as unorganized (even though I had every bit of the text perfectly aligned with the rest of the page). She saw it as distracting (forgetting it’s the part of text everyone should see first).  Essentially, she thought it was wrong.

“Wrong?” Sure, I’ll give it to her. It could have been improved.

But, “not right?”

I like to remember the Law of the Many, which has two focal points worth briefly mentioning. First, the theory of it implies that there will always be at least one person in the world that thinks what you did was right. And it’s often more than one person.

Second, the Law of the Many gives you the right to reject rejection, to deny someone’s disapproval of what you did. If I had 20 instructors tell me it was wrong, I might think differently about it. But one, just one person telling me it’s wrong?

Failure is a hard thing to sell. If you’re wise, you won’t buy it.

 

Stay Positive & Don’t Ever Forget That There’s Always Room For Improvement

Garth E. Beyer

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